Positive about the country we
live in, the climate, the abundance of natural resources,
the vast maritime zone, and the fact we live in a
democracy.

It is part of the character of New Zealanders
to enjoy a rich legacy of culture, values and institutions
and many of these derive from British, Māori and other
societies.

It’s in our character to be positive about
the success of individual New Zealanders, and we have the
reputation for initiative, enterprise and basic
friendliness.

This character quickly built every modern
institution, in a country the size of the UK, but with the
population of Manchester.

So it’s in our character to
know what we are capable of achieving.

Part of
introspection is realism and a willingness to admit we are
not doing as well as we once did.

We want again to be a
proud nation, small, yet standing tall among others.

We
want again to be world leaders in our economy, labour laws,
early childcare, education, our environment and our
commitment to a fair go and equal opportunity.

When
leaders talk about vision they frequently overlook that much
of what we still have left today came from a former great
vision – a vision we lived.

For the last thirty years
our country has been run like a trading company with little
leadership and even less vision.

New Zealand has become a
business with deals to be done, assets to be sold, and the
cost of labour to be reduced.

That stands in contrast to
what we once were.

A third of New Zealand voters have no
memory of the great country we once were.

All they’ve
known is a persistent, malignant, economic experiment that
after thirty years keeps telling them that if only we tweak
a few policies, all will become right.

It won’t.

And
there are five main reasons why not:

1. The economic
prescription is wrong.2. Unfocussed immigration
policies.3. Government assisted programmes of
tribalism.4. A tsunami of health problems.5. A lack
of leadership and inspiration.

Economy

You will
hear this year countless apologists for our economy and the
economic prescription followed for three decades.

However,
if this is really working why would the current crop of
politicians have sold offshore so much of New Zealand’s
wealth built up by the people of this country in the hundred
years before this new bunch came to power.

This sell off
is an unstated admission of on-going failure.

There are
great models of economic success and Norway and Singapore
are just two.

These countries have maximised their export
wealth creation, which we once did.

We bought in young men and
women, young families who would reinvigorate our population
and make a lifetime of contribution to our economy.

They
never embarked from offshore without first having a job and
a house to live in.

This policy resulted in a second
generation proud to call themselves Kiwis.

For the past
three decades New Zealand governments have adopted policies
of open door immigration.

Over the past five years the New
Zealand population has had a turnover of twelve per
cent.

In total half a million people have moved into and
out of New Zealand. That is a staggering figure for a small
country.

New Zealand has gone from a nation of united
people to an urban collection of communities, many clinging
to where they were, rather than where they are now.

We
have the Chinese community, the Pacific Islands community,
the Sri Lankans, the Indians - the list is endless. All
hyphenated New Zealanders.

Now let’s be clear. A great
number of these people have been enormous contributors to
New Zealand’s economic and social life, but there has been
a huge cost in infrastructural, educational, health and
governmental demands.

All of these costs are being
overlooked in an attempt to tell you that if only we
increase our population, economic boom times will
come.

Well we’ve done that for the last 30 years, so
where is the boom?

We are all proud of our heritage – we
all come from somewhere else, even the Māori, but when we
are here we should be New Zealanders.

It’s as simple as
this. Our last census had boxes for virtually every race on
earth. Except one. There was no box for you to tick that you
are a New Zealander.

There are more than 75 languages
catered for by the Auckland health board.

Now, there are
three official languages for New Zealand – English, Maori
and New Zealand Sign Language.

When people come to New
Zealand, New Zealand First says they should fit in and
contribute to our laws, our values, our culture, language
and traditions.

That doesn’t mean abandoning identity.
The Irish, Scots, Welsh, Dalmatians never did, nor did the
Dutch, but if you look at our successful immigration
programmes in the past, they were based on the critical
things that people need – a house, health, education and
skills, jobs and first world wages.

Sadly, New Zealand is
losing many of its young, trained workers and replacing them
often with untrained, unskilled immigrants.

The very
people who say today that we’ve got a population aging
problem, by some intellectual gymnastics defend the policy
that allows more than forty per cent of immigrants to New
Zealand from one country to be over 50 years of age.

This
policy is economic lunacy.

Which New Zealand prime
minister in the hundred years prior to 1984 would have
tolerated this?

One of the disastrous consequences from
this policy now sees hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders
in Australia being treated as second class citizens.

And
when you hear politicians and commentators complaining about
it, please ask them – what did you do, before or after
2001, to prevent this happening?

No doubt they will cough
and splutter and move on to a different subject.

And
whilst we are at it, why is the Government issuing tens of
thousands of work permits to foreigners when New Zealanders
can’t get jobs?

Last year, just one example, endlessly
repeated, the Government issued 49 essential work visas to
foreigners to be checkout operators!

There is the old
Greek saying – ‘those the gods would destroy, they first
make mad’.

These unfocussed immigration policies and
handing out of work visas like an eight-armed octopus happen
because it means a flow of cheap labour that drags down
wages and conditions.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next
government must make serious changes to immigration.

The
next government must focus on people we need, not people who
need us.

Economics, like charity, begins at
home.

Tribalism

The third major threat to our
economic advancement and nationhood is government sponsored
programmes to revive pre-European tribalism – as an
alternative to democracy.

New Zealand was once a unique
place, a blend of two cultures created a vibrant nation. The
colonisers were not perfect. Many injustices were done to
Maori.

But compared to other colonisers, the British were
comparatively benign – thanks to the early involvement of
the Church Missionary Society.

Later, Maori and non-Maori
fought side by side overseas.

The Maori did not fight for
Nga Puhi or Ngati Porou – they fought and died under the
New Zealand flag – just like fellow soldiers alongside
them.

Many Maori have made a huge contribution at every
level of society and the workplace in this country.

But
the so-called economic reformers of the past 30 years
dismantled the industries and state enterprises that were
the economic life blood of Maori.

Freezing works closed,
the Ministry of Works, Forest Service, Government Print and
so many others.

When the Forestry Service was privatised,
thousands of jobs were lost and 80 per cent of those jobs
had been held by Māori.

Heartland New Zealand had the
heart ripped out.

Tens of thousands of Maori were thrown
on the industrial scrap heap.

Along with
unemployment came the twin curses of alcohol and drugs which
are creating mayhem among Maori.

Some Maori leaders
understand what is happening and work towards a solution but
others take advantage of the situation to exploit
division.

Along with the new age economics of selling
everything and bringing in more immigrants, a new political
arrangement was entered into.

This is the politics of
appeasement to radical Māori demands.

Governments learned
quickly that they could ignore real problems faced by
ordinary Māori if they appeased certain so-called Maori
leaders.

And it is not new.

After the communists took
over Russia a century ago they appointed political
commissars to all military and industrial units.

These
commissars policed all activity on behalf of the communist
party.

No matter what happened – no matter how many
casualties – the communist party was never wrong.

New
Zealand governments have faithfully followed a similar
policy, where the Treaty of Waitangi grievance industry is
concerned - the Treaty travellers are never wrong.

If you
look closely you will see a steady stream of commissars
appointed to police the principles of the Treaty of
Waitangi.

Appointed everywhere – local government,
central government, the various agencies and institutions of
state.

Tribes with self-appointed leaders are being
allocated major taxpayer funding to disperse within their
iwi – without any auditing and beyond any genuine public
accountability.

And the Māori at the bottom in whose name
and numbers all these demands are made are getting exactly
nothing.

Auckland City example

Next Friday
submissions on the Draft Auckland Unitary Plan will close.
This plan has some alarming contents.

Nineteen iwi will
have unbridled power to claim rights to any piece of land in
Auckland that they deem special to them under the
plan.

This will be another giant step towards racial
separation in this country and dominance by a few in
Auckland for their own monetary gain.

These iwi will
dictate to the Auckland Council. They can invent all manner
of things to lay claim to a significant place. Under the
plan it is enough for them to say ‘we want that site’,
they do not have to reveal the reason why.

Your council
has rolled over to heavy-handed iwi who are about to grasp
ultimate power over the property rights of
Aucklanders.

Remember, they are operating under an Act
that this Government passed.

It is a massive transfer of
property to a select few and a separation of New Zealand
into Māori and others.

Sure, restore Maori traditional
rights and obligations– that is only fair – and that is
what the Treaty of Waitangi claims are doing through the
proper arena.

However, council plans open the door for iwi
to take rights that go way beyond anything we have seen
before and will jeopardise property ownership and
transactions for untold Kiwis.

Again, this is not
new.

In the 1990s in South Australia there was a huge
controversy surrounding the proposed Hindmarsh Bridge
involving a clash of indigenous Australian beliefs and
property rights.

In 1994 a group of Ngarrindjeri women
elders claimed the site was so sacred to them the reasons
could not be revealed.

The case was controversial because
it intersected with broader concerns about indigenous rights
in Australia and the Mabo and Wik cases regarding native
title.

‘Secret women’s business’ as the claim became
known, evoked an intense legal battle. Some Ngarrindjeri
women came forward to dispute the veracity of the claims and
a Royal Commission found that the ‘secret women’s
business’ claims had been fabricated.

There has already
been an equivalent example before the Auckland Council’s
Transport Committee in June 2011 when a Māori Statutory
Board Member asked the committee “what’s been done about
the Taniwha Horotiu who lives just outside here, and that
tunnel will be going right through his rohe?’

Ladies and
gentlemen this is not a laughing matter.

It points to
future Auckland Council decisions that will involve issues
so precious they cannot be revealed to the public.

And the
question you’ve got to ask is, where on earth did the
legal and political authority for this come
from?

Democratic institutions are being blended with
tribal appointments.

Tribalism is incompatible within a
modern democracy. You only have to look at the tribal wars
in the Middle East and other hotspots like Afghanistan to
see why.

And again major concessions are being made behind
closed doors over the foreshore and seabed without any
public input.

Customary title – a form of ownership, is
replacing Crown or public ownership.

The first step in
this underhand process was for this Government to pass a law
saying nobody owned the foreshore and seabed – but certain
iwi could, under a process that does not see the light of
day or proper legal rules.

Both Maori and non-Maori will
miss out with customary title.

It is simply, over time, a
massive transfer of property and wealth to a select
few.

Ladies and gentlemen, Parliament has to stop the
politics of appeasement.

How can Maori go forwards when
many of their leaders keep telling them to go
backwards?At the same time we must address the real
problems faced by Maori over employment, education, health
and housing on the basis of need.

This has to be a pan
Maori approach that covers all Maori.

It cannot be done
through tribal favours.

If you want apartheid and
tribalism – you should vote for the other parties – not
New Zealand First.

Health

The fourth issue is a
tsunami of health problems at our door.

Our country is
heading down a way one street to imminent disaster and the
Government is doing nothing to prevent it.

According to
Chris Baty (Diabetes New Zealand National President 2012),
400,000 New Zealanders will have diabetes in less than a
decade which will cost billions in annual healthcare
costs.

Between $5,000 - $13,000 is spent every year on
care for each diabetic patient and for every diabetic
probably two more people had pre-diabetes.

Many of our
Māori and Pacific Island children are obese and all too
many adolescents are pre-diabetic, ensuring the numbers will
increase over the years.

Even Māori, Pacific Island and
European teenagers are being diagnosed today with what used
to be considered a ‘mature age onset’ disease, and
it’s alarming.

The emergence of a New Zealand diabetes
epidemic has been discussed for more than ten years but no
action has been taken.

If we don’t urgently apply
policies of prevention we soon will find the economic costs,
of not doing so, unbearable.

Leadership and
inspiration

The fifth issue standing in our way back
to vibrant nationhood is lack of political
leadership.

Ordinary people trying to get on with their
lives are outraged with Parliament.

For several days this
year politicians argued, not about what matters – the
future of their country - but about the designer jacket worn
by the Greens co-leader.

Then there was some waffle about
whether the Prime Minister was a shape shifting
reptile.

The Prime Minister started a debate about our
flag – forgetting that he had already changed it to a FOR
SALE flag like the ones used by Auckland real estate
agents.

If you keep chanting ‘economic rock star’ some
people will start to believe it – until they actually try
to feed and clothe their families.

This is a big hoax.
This is 1984 stuff aimed at the collective
consciousness.

The Prime Minister will claim that we’re
doing better than Australia. Really?

So our young are
going to Australia because Australia is worse?

Future
Vision

If you look at successful nations they have
some things in common.

1. They have an economic
prescription which does work and has done for decades.2.
They have focused and controlled immigration policies.3.
They favour policies of unity, not separatism.4. They
have health policies to safeguard their human capital.5.
And across the political divide, they have inspired
leadership.

The result is that they offer their people
real hope and the certainty that with effort,tomorrow will
be better.

New Zealand once had this and we can have it
again.

As politicians we must show we are committed to our
nation and our people.

We must see patriotism in more than
just our sporting stadiums.

We must see the same
patriotism in Parliament towards New Zealanders.

You know
that this Government looks after foreign companies better
than it looks after Kiwi firms.

Local firms miss out on
government contracts.

Dionne Warwick sang ‘trains and
boats and planes are passing by. They mean a trip to Paris
or Rome for someone else, but not for me’.

Well, we
have a modern version of that song.

Our government, in
buying trains and boats and planes means money and jobs for
other countries, not for us.

Because they are all being
built offshore in China, Bangladesh and Kansas USA.

Our
third largest export, timber, leaves this country in its
most raw unprocessed state for billions of profits and
hundreds of thousands of jobs offshore.

We need to take a
hard look at ourselves and the first place to look should be
at Parliament – the MPs who are supposed to be protectors
of our people and guardians of our resources.

It’s time
for a big change in the way our governments serve New
Zealanders and we in New Zealand First will insist on this
when we are in a position to do so.

On rumours of
coalitions

Recent surveys demonstrate that a great
majority of New Zealanders, and even 35 per cent of National
voters, don’t like sordid pre-election deals.

Nor do
we.

We are months away from an election, with many
policies yet to be revealed.

Later this year New Zealand
First will celebrate our 21st anniversary.

In 21 years
we’ve made democratic decisions as a caucus and as a
party.

Speaking plainly, we don’t know how to play cards
we haven’t been dealt yet.

But one thing you can be sure
of, after the election we will speak with and consult our
supporters.

Ladies and gentlemen, every election is
critical. But this election more so than any in our
lifetime.

We either do nothing and face the prospect of
staggering along.

Or we can be bold, positive, with the
prescription to recover our position of former glory as the
world’s number one economic and social success story.

We
had vision once, and we can live that vision
again.

Leaders must trust the people – and the people
must demand service in return.

That is the only path we
can follow back to nationhood.

Clearly, change in New
Zealand will not start from the top down. It will start from
the bottom up.

That is why I’m asking you to do all you
possibly can in the next few months to persuade people to
our cause and to convince them to vote.

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